At 219 years old, More Tomorrow is one of the oldest villages in Belize - but right now villagers are in a furious battle over one thousand acres of land.
The property - at least 701 acres of it - is being claimed by a private developer - but the village leaders say it is theirs by right dating back to 1998.
Like most land disputes - it's a long and convoluted story - but in the end its about competing private and community interests. We spoke to one passionate village elder today:..
Jules Vasquez reporting
Michael Flowers has sheaves of documents documenting his village's struggle to get last thousand acres of 3,500 acres of land secured for More Tomorrow village.
The quest began in 1998 - by a then UDP government - which acquired the land for a public purpose of agriculture development and duly published the notice twice in the gazette.
2500 of those 3500 hundred acres were set aside, but the letters he has document years of struggle to get that final one thousand set aside.
And now it appears that somehow the land - much of it already being used for farmland - is privately owned - sold to a developer from Texas by the previous private owner, a Taiwanese investment group:
Michael Flowers, Resident More Tomorrow
"There has been no gazetted statement/article stating that the government has relinquished ownership, denounce ownership of these lands or have decided that they are not going to purchase this land anymore. There hasn't been anything like that."
"All this while the villagers of More Tomorrow thought that they were the rightful owners of this land/ The government owns it and and the government has purchase it for them - for the villagers."
But at some point after the 1998 the land - again already occupied by squatters - was treated and transacted as private land.
Flowers refers to discussions with the Commissioner of Lands
Michael Flowers, Resident More Tomorrow
"There has been changes in position from the lands department - sometimes we own t and sometimes we don't. At one time he says that the "chiney" man doesn't have a valid title, there is another time that he said that he has renewed the title and the "chiney" man does have the right title now."
"I say, Mr. Vallejos, why would you give somebody a title for something that is in great controversy; he say 'I don't know' that's was his response."
This community video shows that Vallejos went to the community in December of 2011 with the then area representative to try and allay the fears of the community that they would be dispossessed by a private owner.
Michael Flowers, Resident More Tomorrow
"To let us know that those lands are ours and that permission to survey will be granted and your title should come up little after."
But since then the position has changed:
Michael Flowers, Resident More Tomorrow
"Only 7 of the farmers are going to receive land where they reside on. That was shocking to us."
Which means that the thousand acres - so long pursued - may have to be fought for.
Michael Flowers, Resident More Tomorrow
"The villagers are not going to get off that land and I am hoping that it doesn't escalate to where someone gets hurt because Mr. Vallejos along with another Belizean who seems to be accommodated him is becoming very aggressive and the villagers are getting very defensive - they are just waiting..... It doesn't have to go down this road. If the lands department do their jobs - it shouldn't have reach this far. The only think we are asking is for the lands department is to intervene promptly, to intervene now and settle it."
We did manage to get comment from the CEO in the Ministry of Natural Resources Beverly Castillo. She told us that quote, "this particular matter was discussed in Cabinet today and her ministry is in the process of requesting meetings in an effort to resolve the matter in favour of all parties."
